ARCs: what they actually do (and what they don't)

Season Finale: How Indie Authors Define Success

We started this season asking if you have what it takes to be an indie author. We’re ending it with a harder question: how do you define success — and is your current definition helping you or quietly working against you? This finale isn’t a how-to. It’s the real conversation, the one that started after Tara mentioned tracking one thing and one thing only: whether last month outsold the same month a year ago. That’s it. Not bestseller lists, not the movie deal, not what anyone else is doing. Just: am I doing better than I was? We talk about why “traditionally published” was never the finish line we thought it was, why authors who seem to come from nowhere almost never do, and what changed for each of us this year — what we let go of, and what we’re still white-knuckling. How do you define success right now? Has it changed since you started writing? Drop it in the comments. SUPPORT OUR BOOKS Please grab THE CRITIC, book one in LL’s new psychological suspense series, The Steel City Mysteries: https://llkirchner.com/the-critic [https://llkirchner.com/the-critic] Find Tara’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tara-Lush/author/B00O5M5T5G [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tara-Lush/author/B00O5M5T5G] SHOWNOTES Episodes referenced: * BookBub episode (referenced re: reader magnets and BookBub feature deals) * BookFunnel episode (Ep 21) — LL revisits her earlier take, now sees better results for her genre * Back Matter episode (Ep 18) — Tara’s been reworking her back matter based on this episode * Covers episode (Ep 5) — LL’s strongest skill, discussed in context of what’s working Platforms & tools discussed, marginally: * NetGalley — used for The Critic, drove meaningful pickups * BookSirens — also used for The Critic, time-limited listing * BookFunnel — reader magnet performed better than weeks of lead magnet ads * Amazon Ads / BookBub Ads — discussed as high-variance, lottery-like channels What we’re reading/listening to: * LL: Operation Bounce House — genre-bending far-future sci-fi with a sprawling cast and flashback structure * Tara: Foolproof Dictation by Christopher Downing — craft book on voice dictation for writers COMING NEXT Season one is a wrap. We’re taking the podcast itself on a summer break, but we’ll still be active on Substack and across our books and promo. New season coming this fall — got a topic or guest you want to hear? Drop it in the comments. Thanks for reading YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WRITE THAT! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com [https://youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

What Goes in a Series Bible, and How to Actually Build One

A series bible is a continuity document. It lives outside your manuscripts and records everything that’s true in your fictional world: characters and their eye colors, backstories, the streets your shops sit on, the timeline, the rules. If you create the bible with book one, and you won’t accidentally give your heroine new eyes in book four. This episode walks through what a series bible is, why even a half-baked one beats none, and how to build one without the project eating a week of your life. Tara admits she skipped it the first time around. By the time she was writing a five-book romance series, she hired a VA to build one — color-coded by book, every character logged, every place in town, the full timeline. She leaned on that same document when she rewrote those books into the Starlight River cozy romance series. LL came at it from screenwriting, where a series bible is just how the work gets done. She keeps hers in Scrivener — note cards she can see all at once, a “B-sides” sheet for the bus driver and the security guard who each appeared once, research files, and photos of real places she’s stood in. The conversation covers the formats — Word, Google Docs, spreadsheets, Scrivener, Plottr for timelines — and the reasons a bible earns its keep beyond continuity. It saves time when you’d otherwise stop a writing sprint to hunt for the name of a rehab. It gives your editors, proofreaders, and VA a reference so they’re not expected to remember multiple books’ worth of detail. And it holds the subtext that never reaches the page, the part of the iceberg only the writer sees. If you’ve ever been stumped by a book club question about your own book, this one’s for you. The simplest place to start: write down each character the first time they appear, with hair and eye color. Build from there. Plus: a detour into vampires, a Russian movie that LL adores, and Mads Mikkelson. Tools referenced * Scrivener — a popular place for series bibles; LL uses the note cards (characters, research, plot, plus a “B-sides” sheet for one-off minor characters) so she can see everything at once * Word / Google Docs — the simplest series bible format; Tara’s VA built hers as a color-coded Word doc * Spreadsheets — for running character and name lists * Plottr — for plotting a series arc and seeing the whole timeline on a visual line * NotebookLM — free Google tool that answers questions from your own uploaded manuscripts instead of the internet; closed-loop, not generative. * Apple Notes — LL’s go-to for tracking a timeline What we’re reading * Tara: The Quitters Club by Jessica Strawser — an Amazon First Read about four lifelong friends who reunite and pact to quit the unfulfilling parts of their lives. Comped to Elin Hilderbrand. * LL: Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan — an audiobook (fittingly), written by Kristin Hannah’s narrator, about an audiobook narrator who falls for her male co-star. Thanks for reading YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WRITE THAT! This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com [https://youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The Free Amazon Tools Most Indie Authors Are Botching

If you’ve published a book on Amazon, you already have an author page. It’s there whether you’ve touched it or not, and most of the time it’s a blob doing absolutely nothing for you. This week on You Should Totally Write That, LL Kirchner and I go deep on two free Amazon tools almost every indie author underuses: Author Central and A+ Content. Sounds boring, but it’s not. In fact, we use the word “pizzazz” more than once. Author Central is your friend. This is the back end of your Amazon presence, separate from KDP. Inside, you can update your bio and photo, add editorial reviews, upload book trailers, see your follower count, and track your sales rank across every title. There’s also a Q and A feature where Amazon prompts you with questions like “what book do you recommend.” That’s a sneaky way to associate yourself with a comp author. I list Ellie Alexander on mine because Ellie is a top cozy author, her voice matches mine, and she’s an all around awesome person. Your bio should serve you, not summarize you. Don’t list every job you’ve ever had. If you write psychological suspense set in 1995 Pittsburgh, say that. The detail is searchable. Generic is invisible. And put a real photo up, if at all possible. AI scrapers and readers both clock the difference between a human face and a logo. The Amazon follow button is free marketing. Use it. When a reader follows you on Amazon and you release a new book, Amazon emails them. Promote that follow button in your newsletter, in your social bios, anywhere readers ask for links. A+ Content lives on KDP, not Author Central. This is where you build the visual blocks on your book page: banner graphics, tropes lists, character profiles, comparison images, pull quotes from reviews. I make mine in Canva and use the same template sizes across every book. Since I started populating A+ Content on all my titles, my product pages feel optimized in a way they didn’t before. Whether it’s juicing the algorithm or just stopping the scroll, it’s working. If you only do one thing this week, refresh your author photo and add a follow call to action to your bio. Then go look at A+ Content. It’s free. It’s there. Use it. Tools referenced * Amazon Author Central * Amazon KDP dashboard * Amazon A+ Content (under Marketing in KDP) * Amazon Follow button * Canva (for A+ Content templates) * Amazon BookScan (for trad-pubbed authors) * Draft2Digital (mentioned as an aggregator option) * Barnes & Noble author profile * Google Play Books and Apple Books author profiles * Goodreads (as a source for editorial review pull quotes) What we’re reading * Tara: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, an amazing audiobook narrated by Ruby Dee. Part of an all-Florida reading list she’s attempting for the rest of the year. * LL: We Burned So Bright by TJ Klune, audiobook. A standalone end-of-the-world road trip novel following an elder gay couple, Don and Rodney, with a rogue black hole closing in on Earth. Recommended by a street team member on TikTok. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com [https://youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

The tech stack for new authors: what's worth it

Nobody told us that publishing a book meant starting a company. You’re not just the writer — you’re also the design department, IT, marketing, and accounting. And somewhere along the way, most of us bought a bunch of tools we didn’t need, couldn’t figure out, or used exactly once. In this episode, Tara and I get into what we actually use — the writing tools, book production tools, design tools, scheduling tools, email platforms, and a few analytics tools we think are optional (and a couple we think you can skip entirely, at least for the first few years). We also talk about how to think about acquiring tools: by function, not by FOMO. A few things that came up: why Vellum is the closest thing to a non-negotiable for indie authors, why Canva’s free tier might be enough to start, why most of us have a graveyard of email platforms in our past, and a useful AI tool for series authors that has nothing to do with generating prose. What tools have you spent money on and regretted — or loved? Drop it in the comments. Want to support the show? Support our work =) Find Tara’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tara-Lush/author/B00O5M5T5G [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tara-Lush/author/B00O5M5T5G] Find LL’s books: https://llkirchner.com [https://llkirchner.com] SHOW NOTES Episodes referenced: * Episode 21: BookFunnel * Episode 13/14: Social media + newsletters Platforms & tools discussed: Writing tools: * Google Docs — https://docs.google.com * Scrivener — https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener [https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener] * Final Draft (screenwriting) — https://www.finaldraft.com * NotebookLM (series continuity/AI search) — https://notebooklm.google.com Book production: * Vellum (easiest on Mac) — https://vellum.pub * Atticus (Windows alternative) — https://www.atticus.io * Draft2Digital (free formatting option) — https://www.draft2digital.com Audiobook proofing: * Pozotron — https://www.pozotron.com Design: * Canva — https://www.canva.com * PicMonkey — https://www.picmonkey.com Social post scheduling: * Meta Business Suite (native scheduling, Instagram + Facebook) — https://business.facebook.com Email service providers: * Flodesk — https://flodesk.com * Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — https://kit.com * Mailchimp — https://mailchimp.com * MailerLite — https://www.mailerlite.com Analytics/sales tracking: * Publisher Champ — https://publisherchamp.com * K-lytics — https://k-lytics.com * Publisher Rocket — https://publisherrocket.com * KDP Dashboard — https://kdp.amazon.com * Google Sheets — https://sheets.google.com What we’re reading / listening to: * LL: Yesteryear (audiobook via Spotify — got cut off mid-listen, to be continued) * Tara: The Price of Honey by Liane Moriarty — a short story / reader magnet; worth reading as an example of what a big-trad author can get away with that indie authors can’t Coming next: [Placeholder — hosts hadn’t locked in the next topic by end of recording] METADATA SEO Title: The tools indie authors actually need (58 chars — fits) SEO Description: Two working authors break down the writing, production, design, and admin tools worth paying for — and what to skip. (120 chars) URL slug: tools-indie-authors-actually-need This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com [https://youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

ARCs: what they actually do (and what they don't)

If you’ve ever seen a book drop on release day with 50 reviews already live, you were looking at an ARC team doing its job. ARC stands for Advanced Reader Copy (sometimes Advanced Review Copy) — a pre-release version of your book, sent free to readers in exchange for an honest review. But here’s what nobody tells you upfront: ARCs aren’t a launch-day magic button for every book, in every genre, at every stage of your career. Tara has run ARC teams across three cozy series and will tell you straight — they move the needle most for a first book in a series. By book nine, the math changes. And for LL, who’s launching into psychological suspense following historical noir, the calculus is different again. This week we break down the full picture: eARCs vs. physical ARCs (spoiler: the post office might actually kill you), where to distribute them — BookFunnel, NetGalley, Hidden Gems, Book Sirens — how long before launch to send them out, and the quiet tactic of releasing your paperback five to seven days early so reviews are already stacked when the ebook drops. What’s your ARC strategy right now — or what’s been holding you back from starting one? Drop it in the comments. Yes, we’re looking for ideas! Want to support the show? Thank you to the folks who’ve reached out and pledged to support our show. TBH, we haven’t event had the time to figure that out. That said, a great way to support us is through our books. Thank you for listening. Find Tara’s books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tara-Lush/author/B00O5M5T5G [https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tara-Lush/author/B00O5M5T5G] Find LL’s books: https://llkirchner.com/books [https://llkirchner.com/books] Show notes Episodes referenced: * Episode 21: BookFunnel — [timestamp not confirmed; cross-reference master list] Platforms & tools discussed: * BookFunnel — bookfunnel.com * NetGalley — netgalley.com (co-op/rental option available for indie authors) * Hidden Gems — hiddengemsbooks.com * Book Sirens — booksirens.com * StoryOrigin — [mentioned as one Tara has not tried] * Canva — canva.com (used for ARC team social graphics) * Google Sheets — for ARC team tracking/sign-up form What we’re reading: * Tara: Everything Has Happened by T. Greenwood — literary suspense set in a small Vermont town; recommended for fans of slow-burn, evocative writing * LL: Lost in the Summer of 69 by Eliza Knight — three-generation mother/daughter/granddaughter story; LL is reading it ahead of a June 15 event with Eliza Knight at The Gilded Page Bookstore in Tarpon Springs Thanks for reading YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WRITE THAT! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com [https://youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]